Lone Cloud
by Sabby-Sama
Summary: *Directly after AC!* Cloud goes off on his own for a little while to ponder what his life after his greatest victory, defeating Sephiroth, now entails.


**Disclaimer: I wish I owned Cloud, if he were real that is, to give him a hug :3 But sadly I don't own FFVII or have the power to make fiction characters come to life :C**

**A/N: I wasn't really sure what the appropriate rating for this was, since I don't see anything to warn readers about. Sappiness, maybe?**

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><p>Lone Cloud<p>

Carefully swerving off of the bumpy dirt road, I dismount Fenrir in the shade of a large, leafy tree. Once pushing out the kickstand with my boot, I slowly make my way to an inviting spot on the lush green grass.

I had to get away. Not for good again, but just for a short period of time. To clear my head and to just unwind and. . .think. Maybe I do too much of that for my own good, like Tifa says. But I just have to figure things out by myself, on my own time.

After all those children were healed of Geostigma, not to mention myself, I just had to leave. It's not that I was scared of going back to my usual life with Tifa and the rest. I was happy that I was cured and got to see Zack and Aerith one last time. Seeing them destroyed all the guilt I felt due to feeling like I was helpless when I couldn't do anything to prevent their death's. Because I knew it wasn't my fault.

It was just their fate.

I couldn't make my usual escape to her church, since it was obviously busy with people celebrating. Anywhere in Edge was unsuitable. I needed to go somewhere fresh and clean that won't plague my mind.

And that's why I rode almost two hours outside of Edge, to a small country-side village. I know it was rude of me, and Tifa and the others are probably worried sick and frantic by now. But I needed to be away from people. Just for a moment.

I lie down, my blonde spikes flattening the soft and pleasantly warm grass under my head and body. I was on a type of hill splattered with the occasional huge tree that has been growing on this Planet for a long time. I can see a gorgeous, stetching meadow far beneath me dotted with yellow here and there.

Resting one hand on my stomach, I stretch the other beside me, my fingers running over the delicate petals of the flowers that had somehow crept their way up from the meadow. Turning my head, I notice they're the same as the ones on Zack's honorable grave; as if Aerith's spirit broke through the Lifestream to plant them there from her peaceful little garden in a place where it was thought impossible for life to thrive.

I could easily pluck the flower from the ground and pull off the petals to toss them into the breeze, but I have more respect than that. It took so much strength and perseverance for these flowers to make it all the way up this hill. So much less strength it'll take me to end it's life here.

Looking up at the sky, I squint at the brightness. Even with my tinted goggles it's still to bright. Maybe i'm just not used to the light after living in the darkness for so long. The sky is insanely blue and clear, almost to the point where unnatural. The only thing that mares the infinite powdery slate is a single cloud.

It's not one of those pretty fluffy ones that everyone stops and admires, but just a mere gray-ish smudge that drifts quietly through the empty sky, alone.

I don't remember the last time I actually looked up at the sky like this. Not in heartbreak when Zack died in my arms, or in solemn victory when I defeated Sephiroth for the last time.

Sephiroth. . .It's hard to believe that I actually did it, just moments ago. Alone. I've always had my comrades by my side. The first time we defeated him was just amazing, but now I don't feel any different.

I should be elated, right? The puppet master can no longer manipulate his marionette. When I slashed Sephiroth into oblivion, I also slashed those strings connecting my passive body to his manipulative hands.

Maybe. . .maybe I don't want that. I know it's crazy, but maybe I want to be controlled by someone. To know that I'll be controlled to follow their directions and I won't screw up.

Thats what I fear the most, screwing up so badly that it'll make me appear like a failure. I can't have that happen again. For Tifa.

Tifa. . . Realization suddenly hits me. She's always been there for me. Coming by my side at a moments notice whenever I needed her, even if I didn't know I needed help myself. Eith for moral support, or just to sit there quietly, simply letting her presense soothe me.

I have a life to go back to, a life that isn't going to be perfect. And I understand that. No ones life is perfect on this Planet. I'll make some idiotic mistakes, but i'll always have her there.

She'll be my main support, resurrecting those puppet strings. Only, instead, making this broken marionette into a human.

The rest of the strings will be held by the other important people in my life; Barett, Yuffie. Cid, Marlene, Denzel, Vincent and Red. . .

And in the background, Zack and Aerith will be watching on.

Finally making up my mind, I stand and make my way back over to Fenrir. I rev the engine and before I speed off back to Edge, I take one last glance back at the hill and the meadow underneath. At the amazing sky above me, the straggling cloud no longer there.

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><p>I've had this idea in my head for so long but I can never make it fully connect until now. I'm sorry if it's almost sort of cheesy but this is to show Cloud's thougths after Advent Children, with my own twist. Review and tell me what you though please!<p>

~Sabby-Sama


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